3.3
Quality4.0
Difficulty63%
Would Retake101
Reviews63%
Would Retake
101
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
37
4
17
3
9
2
17
1
21
What Students Say
“Very quiet and unclear while lecturing, but had decent lecture notes which he posted online”
MA261 - 2.0 rating“I had Kaufmann for 161 Impact which wasnt horrible”
MA161 - 1.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
4%
Textbook Required
23%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Improving
+0.59 avg changeRatings by Course
MATH226
4.7
(3)527
4.4
(5)261
4.0
(1)MA26100
4.0
(1)MA51100
3.8
(16)Difficulty by Course
MA162
4.6
MA51100
4.3
MA261
3.9
MATH226
3.7
527
3.6
Reviews (101)
He seems to know alot about math and is enthusiastic about it, but he isnt clear on the concepts in a way that he can make the students understand the material. He's a good guy just not a good teacher.
One of the worst professors I have yet to have at Purdue. His lecture is a complete waste of time. He is hard to understand and uses a powerpoint half of the time. The other half his handwriting is awful.
Great class
Probably the worst professor I have ever had and will ever have in my life. I found myself at lecture correcting his mistakes that he made every day I went. Going to class actually probably made things worse for you. Avoid this professor at all costs or you will be sorry.
Kaufmann is a terrible professor. He doesn't know what he is teaching and is not interesting at all. AVOID.
Fun guy that knows a lot of math, however has some difficulty portraying his thoughts. He made mistakes differentiating, but really it encouraged me to pay more attention. If you have a shaky math foundation I'd consider steering clear.
Knows his stuff. Great examples from physics.
Hard subject. Good lecture.
I have no idea what is going on. Terrible teacher.
I don't learn anything in this class. He just blows by the material without stopping and he makes countless mistakes. You can't read his handwriting and the rest is a sloppy last minute PowerPoint he slipped together. If you can find a better professor do it, and do it quickly before you get behind.
Very enthusiastic. He seems like a real nice guy, but he's very hard to follow. I'm not able to get much out of the lecture due to his sadly very sloppy handwriting, but the book can make up for what lecture lacks. If you're especially confused, he is more than willing to help outside of class, and is a little more clear in a one on one setting
Lots of stuff to cover. The posted slides help. Always helps if you ask him.
He sometimes goes on random tangents and focuses more on geometry than actual equations. Hand writing is pretty bad and half of the time he copies examples down wrong and just crosses everything out so it's hard to follow. You'll probably need to do a lot of reading on your own
He's passionate about math and it shows. He often gives longer explanations than necessary but if you're the kind of person who likes to know why and how an equation works then he's the guy for you.
Prof. Kaufmann is very knowledgeable and a skilled mathematician. He loves understanding how things work and their real-world application. However, his handwriting is extremely messy and his hand-drawn graphs often are illegible. Look through the book for better graphics. His slides are very helpful. The tests are difficult but not impossible.
Funny jokes. Great review sheet.
Is really nice when you ask him. Lectures and material are tough.
Professor Kaufmann gives explanations for the reasoning behind the mathematics that he teaches. He sometimes goes into more detail than necessary, but if you want like to know the mechanics then he's a good professor for you. Be sure to listen closely during lecture. He writes notes and works helpful examples but his handwriting is messy.
A true genius, and it's obvious from the beginning. You should see his CV and publications. Students need to be aware of his desire to teach real geometry instead of learning crap equations.
He really loves math, I'll give him that. His handwriting takes a LOT of getting used to. He is hard to understand both logically and vocally. It is easy to miss details. He cracks jokes, but I could never hear them. Honestly, the lecture hall slowly emptied out throughout the semester as we all passed around the link to Chen's lectures online.
Didn't think it could get worse after Gabrielov in Calc 2..... I was wrong. He actually managed to make vectors seem confusing. So unless you want to make Highschool stuff seem like the Da Vinci code I suggest you watch Dr. Chen's lectures online.
This is a tough course. Kaufmann was great at giving the background why this stuff is needed.
He is a fair guy. Watching the lectures was good, but coming to class improves your grade
I would give better feedback if I could actually understand what he was saying. Man doesn't know how to enunciate.
Get ready to learn the entire class by yourself. This professor is one of the most confusing and least helpful professors I've ever had. It is pointless to go to his lectures because you will not learn anything. I suggest a different professor.
Lectures are hard to follow and his notes don't give you enough to learn on your own. I ended up watching a different professors lectures online.
He really gives the background.
Go to the review sessions
Poor lecturer, terrible handwriting and notes. Helpful during office hours but vague during class.
This is a tough course, so you got to keepp up. What is frustrating is that you don't know what grade you get until the class ends since there is a totally weird universal policy for all the calc courses at Purdue that sucks.
Kaufmann is ok.
Very quiet and unclear while lecturing, but had decent lecture notes which he posted online. If you have him, just get the link from somebody in Chen's section to his lectures and watch those instead of going to class.
I went to the lectures and learned a lot of stuff. Got the background you can't get from the videos. The sound systems sucks though.
His lecture notes were kinda unclear, and the notes posted online didn't include any examples. Ended up just reading the book and using other online notes to learn the material.
Kaufmann is a nice guy, but he has a hard time speaking clearly and explaining things during his lectures. His PowerPoints had important formulas, which was nice, but they were generalized, and again, not very well explained. By the time the semester was nearing the end, nearly 75% of the students stopped going to lecture. Perhaps I should've too.
Just realized how much we covered last semester. Great job with all that material.
Very difficult to understand and makes mistakes that confuse people. His handwriting is also very bad.
As good or bad as the course.
The course is hard, but I liked him.
may be the fastest talker i have ever been around. I literally can not understand a word he says and his handwriting is absolutely horrendous. For the second year in a row i've learned most of the material from youtube. This is calculus 3 Purdue, start hiring good teachers not just good researchers.
Reads off the slides, and not much else.
He really cares. His review was great.
Really cares and always asks for questions
He can't explain the concepts very well and always seems very rushed to get through the material. As a result, his handwriting is atrocious and once he starts an example he doesn't stop to make sure that you know what's going on. Watch Dr. Chen's lectures on BoilerCast instead.
Always stops to ask for questions during examples. Really cares.
He is really helpful and cares. Go to his office hours
Really nice guy. Explains stuff to you if you go and ask him
Clas is hard. He really goes out of his way to give the bavkground.
Focuses far too much on theory which will in no way help you pass the class. The average for our final exam was a 45% which is insane. Look for outside resources and get supplemental support from the very beginning.
It was good I went to the lectures. The final was really hard and you could only get the background from the lectures. He reviewed the essential parts. That really helped.
Professor Kaufman tells you all the theory about the topic you are learning. Unfortunately this takes up much class time and he is rushed to finish a few examples.
Regularly struggles to get through an example problem without making at least three mistakes, then muttering to himself he would scratch out part of his work and continue without explaining what he had messed up. He also felt that as long as he ended with stating an equation that we could blindly follow his job was done. Not an engaging lecturer.
He explained examples well and always asked for questions.
Hi went to the lecture and watched videos. Would have been lost on the final without the lectures. Videos did not cover everything.
Didn't go to lecture and just watched videos. Would have been lost on the final with the lectures anyway. Videos did not cover everything but covered enough of the important things.
Really give the background. Instead of going through the motions explains where things come from and how they are used.
Lecture really put the pieces together. You can tell he is enthused about material.
Stuff is hard. Have to work a lot.
Really hard course. It is graded on a curve.
He's a very intelligent professor and can solve almost any problem, but sometimes it can be hard to grasp how to do so yourself. He talks a little fast as well. Other than that he's cool.
You can't understand what he's writing or saying during lectures, and he often writes formulae down wrong and doesn't notice it.
I had Kaufmann for 161 Impact which wasnt horrible. But he just mummers underneath his breadth and you cant year anything he says. His writing is also not readable.
Great review. Always answers questions in class.
He really cares. He is always willing to explain stuff in class and in office hours
Professor Kauffman is very smart and knowledgeable about calculus, but he is terrible at teaching. I stopped going to lecture after a week because he would just confuse me more. Most people just watched Chen videos or looked at Professor Chens notes to learn the material.
Only bright spot. Course is super hard. Average on last midterm was 50. would not survive without reviews and lectures.
Took IMPACT MA 161 Fall 2018. "Lectures" were clear and gave good notes for group work in IMPACT session. Was helpful when asked questions individually. If you do well working in groups AND are focused enough to watch lectures outside of class individually/remember enough from high school calculus, this class is for you. Bonus, cookies every class.
A terrible professor. I had him for MA 162 which is such a tough course already, and he cannot teach. You can't hear him, read his hand writing, and messes up every ten seconds with the example problems. I stopped going to his lectures after the first 3 weeks and went to the other professor's lecture for the class.
He gives a lot of proofs and very few examples. The homework is hard to complete because it is nothing like the lectures. He posted lectures online so going to class is not mandatory. If given the chance choose a different professor for this class. He is a nice guy but not a good teacher.
Listens to questions. Almost impossible to do well in the class, since the exams are super hard. He tries to help you though.
Always tries to help an gives background
Clear lectures if you pay attention - also gives examples for every new concept he introduces. Very good professor overall.
Does not care about the class, just talks at the students without caring whether or not they understand. You will need to rely on other resources to understand any of the content.
Really cares about students. Stops lectures to ask for questions. Always answers students questions in and after class.
Professor Kaufmann spends way too much time talking about where the topics come from and not a lot of time on how to implement the concepts into the answers. Going to his lectures seemed like no point since I would have to push help me solve this for all of my homework that you should just watch Chenflix.
Here is your warning SWITCH PROFESSORS!!! You do not want Kaufmann. Awful lectures, other professors explain topics better. On top of that his handwriting is sooo bad makes it hard to differential his variables. Good luck
He's kind of hard to understand, and the lectures weren't really worth going to when Chenflix was available, which was better especially because his notes are hard to read.
Kaufmann is not the best lecturer. His lectures can be confusing and difficult to follow. This class is challenging and a good lecturer makes a huge difference.
Professor Kaufmann provided good practice materials for the exams. There is a ton of homework, but exams were closely matched with homeworks. He closely followed Gilbert Strang's book. Class attendance was not mandatory, and he posted both videos and pdfs of the lectures in brightspace. Exam grades were returned promptly.
Scope: "Strang Lin Alg and App. 4th ed." Chp 1-7 App A-B Lectures: Illegible handwriting. Half explained examples. Just watched Strang MIT OCW lectures. Hwk: 14 hwk-10Q's each. Vague feedback and no solutions are provided to learn from. Exams: 2exam/1final: Exams: 1hour-4 long problems & 1 T/F (Avg~75%). Final format: 2hour-20 MC q's. (Avg~55%)
Maked great effort to explain why the abstract myths concepts are important for engineers
Is availableon zoom for meetings. Extremely helpful. Fair exams
Lots of content Grading extremely fair.
Gave perspectives on how the concepts work on real life
Great lectures. Lots of content. Fair grading.
Couldnt understand handwriting most of the time. The youtube lectures by GS got me through the course. There were people who excelled in class but I guess they were from the Math department. I went through most of my life thinking I love math only to now believe I suck at it. HWs were graded post exams. There was absolute chaos through the semester
I can only assume that the good reviews for this course on here were arranged. I will echo what others have said, good luck trying to read notes, the textbook was not great either. Best bet is to look for lessons on the course material elsewhere or avoid this class altogether if possible.
Illegible handwriting, constantly makes mistakes, makes mistakes again while correcting, goes too fast, spends more time on the background and proofs of the theorems, do hw problems and attend review, do extra credit assignment, can make a decent grade at the end. 2 Midterms (lots of partial credits) Final is multiple choice (no partial credit).
does not use textbook, reviews did not follow the sequence of topics outlined in book - review provided different outlook on course's application on engineering. textbook is very difficult to follow. midterms and finals are easy, but you have to be quick and attempt all questions. review gives clear idea on what's on exam, study everyday.
Extremely knowledgeable. Hard exams, but fair grading.
The graders were too slow.
This course is not for those that want an easy math credit. You learn a lot, but it is intense.
This course followed a preannounced day-by-day schedule based on Strang's book. The amount of material was a lot, but you learned a lot if you kept up.
Fair grading. Everything is on a curve, so don't worry.
Really knows material. Don't miss the reviews.
Very approachable.Always made time for students also online.
This class gave excellent math background. Dr Kaufmann really understands the applications and makes the course interesting and fun.
Lectures are filled with examples. There are quite a few homework assignments. Handwriting can be hard to read at times. Grading is fair. Make sure not to miss the reviews.
He is really good at explaining why the mathematics is relevant to engineering questions.
He manages to make the abstract material interesting. Funny in his way.
He is great. He puts things into real world contexts. Not easy to do. Mind you the math is still hard, but he teaches you what it is good for
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
4%
Textbook Required
23%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Improving
+0.59 avg changeRatings by Course
MATH226
4.7
(3)527
4.4
(5)261
4.0
(1)MA26100
4.0
(1)MA51100
3.8
(16)Difficulty by Course
MA162
4.6
MA51100
4.3
MA261
3.9
MATH226
3.7
527
3.6